Scripture reference: Genesis 1:1-4 (NKJV); John 1:1-5 (NKJV); Isaiah 9:2 (TPT); Matthew 4:12-17 (TPT); John 1:14 (NLT); John 1:9-13 (NLT); 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 (KJV); 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 (TPT); John 17:14-18 (NKJV)
Praise You, Lord. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord, that the Holy Spirit is here today, and in everything that we do in sound and in song, and the words that will be declared, I pray Father, that it will be by the leading and the guiding of the Holy Spirit, to uplift and exalt the Name of Jesus. I, thank You, Lord, that every day is an opportunity to grow, and to change, and to walk in the Light. I pray that as we continue in the service today, that we will understand more, what it takes to walk in the Light. Thank you, Father, in Jesus’ name. Amen. You may or may be seated. Hallelujah.
Can you imagine what the sounds of heaven are going to sound like when we get there? When the Creator of all music and all sound, there where we are in His presence forever? Wow. I mean can you imagine what it will be like to, to worship God? Without even thinking about it? Without even having anything else in your spirit, other than just worship? That’s quite an amazing thought, hey? So, while we’re on earth you might as well practice because you’re going to do it for eternity, you know. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
So, what you’re hearing in my throat is a post nasal drip and some things that are in my head. My voice may sound a little more scratchy than normal today, but you’ll forgive me for that? Because the Word will make up for it? Amen. Paise the Lord.
Well, today I am going to minister on a question that many people have in their hearts. This is a teaching that is under the direction of the Holy Spirit today. So, before I do that, let me just say to you that next Sunday, which is the 20th, we will be having a Sunday Service, a single service, on Sunday at nine o’clock, because many people are going away. So, we’re going to have nine o’clock, not half-past eight, nine o’clock, Sunday Service. Then Christmas morning, we will have a digital Christmas morning service. A special digital Christmas morning service for you, at nine o’clock. So you tune in, and we are going to have a special digital Christmas service for you.
The Sunday after that which is Sunday the 27th, we will have a digital Sunday service for you. Which will start at nine o’clock, and then don’t forget Christmas Eve, ag, on Christmas night, at seven o’clock, you can tune in to TBN, if you have DSTV. You can tune in to TBN, and we are going to do a Special Christmas Service for the country, at seven o’clock on TBN. Special Christmas Service, coming from Heritage of Faith, Witbank. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.
That’s amazing because they gave us the time for free. [Pastor John laughing] I phoned them and asked them if they got time, and they said, “Well, let’s get back to you.” They got back to me, and they said, “You can have seven o’clock Sunday night?” “How much is it gonna cost?” (they answered) “For free, our Christmas gift to you!” How amazing is that? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. So, then that’s Christmas night.
Then, Sunday morning, of course, nine o’clock, again, digital service. Then New Year’s Eve at half-past 10, you can join Pastor Sharon and I, you can join us, praise and worship and a special message that will lead you into the new year. It’s only about 45 minutes. If you want to stay up late, then you can do that, but we want to actually give you some spiritual input, so that you can actually have your heart full of the Word of God when you go into the New Year. Amen.
You will get all of this in an email, on WhatsApp. We will communicate this with you, but I’m just letting you know. The first Sunday of the year, which I think is the third, Sunday, the third of January. Again, nine o’clock in the morning, there will be a digital service. Amen. Praise the Lord.
You’ll get all of this, just wanted to give you that, so that you have those things in your head and in your mind. Okay, so I’m going to talk to you about some things today that are very important. Many people have questioned me about this subject over the years. I’m still, we’re still talking, I Will Take The Children, but my subtitle for I Will Take The Children is Light and Dark. Walk in the Light. Walk in the Light.
Light, so that you know, the dictionary definition of walk in the Light is a noun, is the natural agent that stimulates sight, and makes things visible. The natural agent that stimulates light, and makes things visible. Light, if you break it down into photons and electrons and all those kinds of things, is essentially, it’s energy. Okay, so the way they describe it…a natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible. When you go down, and you look at some of the adjectives and some of the other things that come under the dictionary of light, they say here, quite clearly, understanding of a problem or mystery, enlightenment, or spiritual illumination by divine truth. So, that’s how they state it in the dictionary…spiritual illumination by divine truth.
So, then, what is dark? Many people will say, black is dark. Well, black is actually not a colour, you know that. Black is the absence of any colour. So, it’s not a colour. It’s just the absence of any other colour – that makes it black. That’s the same thing with darkness. Darkness is not something that really exists, it’s actually just an absence of light, and that’s what it says in the dictionary, the absence of light in a place. They also, further on, make this other comment that there’s something hidden from knowledge, or mysterious. Darkness in that context is something that is hidden from you, you can’t see it.
I have to start from the beginning, but as to make a lot more sense to you, as I read through the Scriptures today. Genesis, chapter one, verse 1-4, and I’m reading the New King James Bible. 1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I just want to make this point for your understanding, no one can actually determine when the beginning was. In the beginning, one tends to kind of say, In the beginning, God made the heavens and earth, then one thinks that actually, the rest of the verses that follow, happen immediately after each other. You understand that in eternity, there is no time. Because everything in eternity happens at the speed of light. Everything that happens at light, one day in our time is equal to 1000 years. In other words, there is no time equivalent in light that we have in human time. So, everything is pre-existent now, in light.
If you are light, and God said, Let there be Light, what He was saying is, Myself is coming to the earth. Myself is coming, and in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In other words, He is saying, My Light, My pre-existing eternal Self, is now going to come upon the earth. That’s why I believe that science and the Bible can live very well together because if you just understand that the Bible, that the way we interpret the Bible, and the way that God is eternally, doesn’t limit our belief, it expands our belief, and actually, it’s a foundation for our belief to grow more. Hallelujah. Amen.
This happened, and then the second verse says 2the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. In other words, the pre-existing God, that had Light and separate…made light, and Heaven and Earth meant that when the earth was existent, it just means that the pre-existent Light of God wasn’t there. When there is no light, there is an absence, there is an absence of anything that can make it live. Nothing lives without light. Nothing exists without the energy of light.
So, although the sun gives us warmth and keeps our temperature on the earth at an optimal temperature environment for man to be able to live here. The fact of the matter is that nothing exists without light. I read a scientific article one day, that if there was actually zero light from the sun, there was no warmth from the sun, the resources that were on the earth that men could live with, and the temperature changes, I think I’m open to correction here, but I think the article said something like; “man could not live for more than three days or seven days or something like that”. It was a very short space of time, and the human race would cease to exist.”
Just imagine this event happening, just imagine this event. I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but just imagine this event. The enemy of God, who was an angel that came before the throne of God. That angels’ name was Lucifer, and he was filled with the Light of God, he was also filled with the music of God, and all the sounds of God. He decided; I will make my will as same as the will of God, and I will raise myself and exalt myself to the same level as God.
Then there cannot be an existence of someone challenging the true source of all things, even though you desire it, you can’t be it. There is only one source of all things. That is God. In that instance, the Bible says that he fell from heaven, like lightning. What happened was; he was separated from the life of God and he was separated from the Light of God, and a third of the angels that he persuaded to go with him, they all separated from the Light.
In that separation, in the realm where they lived, there was no Light, there was no life. You would say it was dark, it was void, and without any form, because there was no place for the Light, and the Life of God there. Right? So, just for you to ponder, for a few moments one day.
2The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, “Let there be Light”; and there was Light. Let My presence be there. When He said, “Let my presence be there”, then His presence was there, Light. 4And God saw the Light, that it was good; and God divided the Light from the darkness (Genesis 1:1-4 KJV).
This was important for God to do, because He had to make a separation between the things that happened in darkness, where His Light wasn’t and the things that happened in Light, where He was present. There can’t be any creative force, there can’t be any life, there can’t be any ongoing reproductive or productive anything happening with the absence of light. You all with me this morning? Light and darkness had to be separated because the two cannot exist together. Where Light is, darkness cannot be. Darkness is only the absence of light. God actually said, “I’m going to place it in such a way, that there is an end to light and there is the beginning of darkness. Okay.
You understand that as a human being, as a created being that we are, along with other created beings, God made space for us to live. He made space for us to be productive, He made space for us to have a life. There are many things in this equation, that science, thinking that they are disproving God and thinking that they are actually proving evolution. If they just read Genesis 1 to 3, they would understand that the space of time is not recorded, because it happened in eternity. So, when they say something was, is a 100 million years old, in God, that is no time at all because there’s no time in light.
Therefore in darkness and where there is void and there is nothing going on there, anything that lived in the light, before the darkness, and before the void happened, that couldn’t continue to exist. So, when they find things that existed, and they say, “This is 100 million years old,” it’s explainable through this Scripture, that they lived in a place that later became dark and void and without any form. Where there was no Light. Hallelujah.
If you want to know more about this, we preach a subject in Bible School that talks about the speed of light, and all of that, and you can learn more. That’s a plug for the Bible school. Then we go to John chapter one, by the way, let me just say this, that we’ve been running the Bible school, nationally and internationally for the last 17 years. Here in Witbank, we have graduated thousands of students and many of them, a lot of them are pastors of churches, that have had no formal training until they came here.
Many of the pastors will tell you that this Bible school has uplifted their ability to minister to their communities, and has given them a standard and has given them information and knowledge that they can touch the people that they minister to. Hallelujah. So if you’re part of Heritage of Faith, and you give your tithes and your offerings, and you help us with the Bible school, you are a part of a great work that has done great things across South Africa and across Africa. Thank you for that. It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. Amen.
Let me go back to John 1, for the third time. John chapter 1, verse 1, 1 In the beginning, in the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5 NKJV).
Because anything that lives in darkness cannot comprehend what happens in the light. There is a separation, if you are in the darkness, that means that you are absent, the ability to see; you are absent the ability to understand because you’re walking and living without light. There is a scripture that refers to this in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2, I’m reading this out of The Passion Translation, and it reads like this, 2 Those who walked in darkness have seen a radiant light, shining upon them. They once lived in the shadows of death but now a glorious light has dawned (Isaiah 9:2 TPT).
That is talking about Jesus. That is a prophetic word that has come upon the Prophet Isaiah, talking about the coming of Jesus. We read in Matthew 4, chapter 12 to 17. Again, the same translation, 12 When Jesus heard that John the Baptizer had been thrown into prison, he went back into Galilee. 13 Jesus moved from Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum, which is by Lake Galilee in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14He did this to make the prophecy of Isaiah come true: 15 Listen, you who live in the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, along the road to the sea and on the other side of the Jordan, and Galilee–the land of non-Jewish peoples! That is the land of everywhere else. Okay. 16 You who spend your days shrouded in darkness can now say, We have seen a brilliant Light.” And those who live in the dark shadow land of death can now say, “The Dawning Light arises on us.” 17 From that time on Jesus began to proclaim his message with these words: “Keep turning away from your sins and come back to God, for heaven’s kingdom realm is now accessible. (Matthew 4:12-17 TPT).
In other words, when Jesus became flesh and He started to live amongst us, He became a visible expression of light and life. Those of you who kept living in the shroud of darkness, you don’t have to make that choice anymore to live there, you now have an option. The option is to walk in the Light. How many of you want to walk in the Light? You don’t want darkness, right? There is nothing going on in darkness, it’s void. It has nothing, there’s no substance there. There’s nothing there of any benefit to anybody. Just a nothing place to be. It has got to be one of the worst things that you can have in your life is a nothing place to be, right?
Come on, everybody in the world is actually desiring to be in a place of purpose, in a place of productivity, in a place of success. Because the alternative is a nothing place to be; which is just a survival place. It’s a nothing place.
I read to you, John, chapter one, verse 14, and then I’m going to go back and read the verses that came before John chapter 14, just because of the way that this message is structured today. John one, verse 14. Remember, I read in Isaiah, so John one, verse 14, says, 14The Word became human and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. So in this light, this Word, He is full of love, unfailing love and faithfulness.
If I were to ask you today, what is the greatest quality that you would desire in a person that you had anything to do with, in your life? Would you not say unfailing love and faithfulness? Right? Because on the foundation of unfailing love and faithfulness, you can build if you have a failing love, and you have unfaithfulness, you can’t build there because you’re uncertain of the future. Isn’t that right?
Unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen His glory and the glory of the Fathers one and only Son (John 1:14 NLT). Now I’m going to go back and read from verse 9 to 13, which is the preceding scripture to the one I’ve just read.
9The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. Will you all say that with me? Didn’t recognize Him. If you’re in darkness, you can’t recognize the Light. If you choose to stay in darkness, you can’t recognize Light. Hey? 11He came to His own people, and they, even they rejected Him. 12But to all who believed Him, and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. So, if you don’t recognize what the Light is, you don’t recognize life, you can’t become a child of God.
One of the previous scriptures, I just read to you, the kingdom realm has come to you. 13They are reborn, not with a physical birth, resulting from human passion, or plan, but birth that comes from God (John 1:9-13 NLT). Are we clear, now that actually, there is a place of living that you can live, that’s in Light. There is a place of recreated, reborn spirit that recognizes God and chooses to live there? This is a good place to be if you’re in that place. If you’re not in that place, then it means you’re rejecting the Light and therefore you can’t see.
Before I go into the next passage of scripture, I want to just ask you a rhetorical question. If I switched up off these lights, and we sat in complete darkness, would you choose that, as a way of life, to live in darkness without sight or would you rather want to actually be where the Light is? It’s a no brainer, right? Even if you are in a house and you go to bed at night, you don’t really want complete darkness, because you might want to get up in the night and go to the bathroom, or something else might happen. Even though some people say you want complete, complete darkness. I know some people even sleep with, like things over their eyes because they want complete darkness. Reality is when they wake up, and they need to do something, they need light, and they want light, so that they can see what they’re doing.
We know that even in the natural world, you would choose light as your platform that you would want to live in, you wouldn’t willingly choose darkness.
[Pastor John talking to the team] Has someone got nearby, the dimmer switch for these lights? Can I just dim the lights, just dim the lights for me, please? But slowly, don’t dim them too fast. But slowly, who is where the dimmer is? Who’s hearing me? Is someone hearing me? Now they dimmed it up. So if you can dim it down, dim it down, and keep dimming it down, please. More? Well, that was a bit quick. Anyway. So I can’t make it too dark. Because we have to switch off the television lights, you can turn the lights up again, slowly.
You see, as the lights come in, you’ll begin to see more definition, the results of what your eyes are created to see, you begin to see better, more clearer. When the lights go down. It’s not so it’s not so dramatic. Or when the light starts to fade, it’s not so dramatic, it just happens gradually, until you’re no longer able to see.
If I was the enemy of God, my strategy would be not to remove all light from your life in one shot, my strategy would be to make the light grow dimmer and dimmer in your life so that you can’t tell the difference from what you were able to see to what you can see. So then what happens is you begin to settle for “I’m just happy, there’s a bit of light. I’m happy it’s not completely dark.” But actually, you’re not even aware that you had this great brilliant light that you’re walking in, and now you’re just walking for a settled, “At least it’s not dark.”
Because the enemy would know, the enemy of God would know that if he made it so dramatic and so quick, that you would immediately say, “Hey, what’s wrong? What’s wrong? What’s going on? Why? Why is it so dark all of a sudden?” You would action it immediately, you would do something about it, but if it happens slowly, you wouldn’t do? You wouldn’t act on it immediately.
Here is the big, big question that dominates a lot of our Christian life. It’s written in this book of Corinthians, chapter 14. I’m going to read all through to the first verse of the next chapter. And this is what it says, 14Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? So, righteousness is light, and righteousness is dark. And what communion has light with darkness? 15And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or the devil? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, a believer with a non-believer? 16And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God and God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate (2 Corinthians 6:14-17 KJV).
What did God do, right in the beginning? He separated the Light from the darkness. So what’s He saying? I’m living in you. You now become Light. You need to separate from those who don’t have Light and who walk in darkness. Come on. Now. This is a pattern of God, this is not a pattern of something that is just, you know, we’ve discovered it today or in the last 100 years, this is the pattern of God, from eternity before we were even thought about.
Okay, I will be their God they shall be My people. 17Wherefore come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. 18And I will receive you and will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty, having, therefore, the verse one of the next chapter, 1Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 KJV, 7:1 TPT).
Alright, I’m going to read this to you from the Passion Translation. This will give you a really nice, quick description in a different, more modern language and just help you understand it better. 14Don’t continue to team up with unbelievers in mismatched alliances, for what partnership is there between righteousness and rebellion (2 Corinthians 6:14 TPT). So what is darkness, it’s rebellion against light.
Whenever anybody’s really stubborn in their hearts, and they say, “I refuse to give God any acknowledgement in my life, or I really want to do this, and I’m going to do this. I don’t care what anybody else says, including God, because I want to do what I want to do.” That is darkness and it’s rebellion because it’s rebelling against truth. Ja, neh? Hey, don’t look at me like that. We’ve all been there.
Maybe you were even there this morning, and this morning, you might have even had the thought, “I don’t think I’ll go to church today. I don’t care what anybody thinks about it. I’ll do what I want to do. I’ll go to church when I want to go to church and let no one say anything about that.”
Come on, this is not something that happens, one time in your life, “I made Jesus Lord and Savior of my life, and now and forever, I am walking in the Light and I will always make the right Light choice.” No, you are going to have to face yourself, that old nature, every now and again it pops its head up in rebellion and wants to say, “I think I’ll choose the darkness.” But you’re not really thinking in those terms. “I think I’ll choose the darkness.” The devil wouldn’t present it to you like that. He would present it to you of, “It’s just your own will, do your own thing.”
When you think you’re doing your own will, and I’m doing my own thing, you’re actually choosing darkness and rebellion. You are choosing that, you are not saying it’s my will. So, I said this in Joburg last week, I’m going to say it again, it’s the only time I’m going to say it. This is Pastor Sharon’s revelation, now it’s mine, but I give her credit for getting this revelation from God.
We always think that there are three wills; there’s the devil’s wills, there’s God’s will, and there’s my will. That’s just simply not true. Subconsciously, we have been led to believe if I do my will, there is my will and there is place for my will, and it’s not the devil’s will, but it’s also not God’s will.
No, when you choose your will, it is the devil’s will because whenever it’s your will, you’re not choosing God’s will. So, there is no three wills, there’s only one of two choices, but the devil doesn’t want you to think that way. He wants you to think – just choose your own will, because in your own will, everybody’s got a will and everybody has the right to do what they want to do.
Didn’t Jesus say, you are the temple of the living God, and He will walk in you and He will be a God to you. So, therefore actually, why would you choose to walk in darkness when you can choose to walk in light? Well, of course it’s because the devil deceives you into thinking that your own will is okay. If you go back to the beginning, and you see God made Adam and Eve and He gave them a will, the only choice was not to choose their own will, but for their own will to choose dark or light. Ja. Here’s the good news. The good news is that when you receive Jesus in your life, and in your heart, He gives you the strength to keep choosing holiness or righteousness. That’s why He can say, “You must be holy.” Be perfect in the fear of God and then you’ll be holy.
Anyway, let me start again, and I’ll read through it, see if I can get through it without elaborating on it. 14 Don’t continue to team up with unbelievers in mismatched alliances, for what partnership is there between righteousness and rebellion? Who could mingle light with darkness? 15 What harmony can there be between Christ and Satan? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What friendship does God’s temple have with demons? For indeed, we are the temple of the living God, just as God has said: I will make my home in them and walk among them I will be their God, and they will be my people. 17 For this reason, “Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord “Touch nothing that is unclean, and I will embrace you. 18 I will be a true Father to you, and you will be my beloved sons and daughters,” says the Lord Yahweh Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 TPT).
Verse one of the next chapter, 1Beloved ones, with promises like these, and because of our deepest respect and worship of God, we must remove everything from our lives that contaminates body and spirit, and continue to complete the development of holiness within us (2 Corinthians 7:1 TPT).
Okay, some important questions that people ask me is, how does this relate to friends? How does this relate to business? How does this relate to everything that we do in our lives? If this scripture says, be separate? Okay, I’ll answer you by using another scripture and then I’ll expand on this.
This is John chapter 17 verse 14-18. 14 I have given them Your word, this is Jesus praying for us, I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world… (John 14:15 NKJV) Why? Because your body gives you the right to live in this world. If your body ceases to exist, you’re not in this world anymore, and it is only through your body that you can be in this world. Jesus is saying, I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, because then they would go to heaven. Right? Are you all with me now?
15 …but that You should keep them from the evil one. In other words, keep them from the darkness that’s in the world. If 16 they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world (John 17:14-18 NKJV).
On the one hand, He’s saying, be separate from the world, but you must go out into the world. Huh? So, what God is, is clearly telling us that there is a level of engagement that we must have with the world, but we can’t afford for what the world has to be in us. We can be in this world, and we must go after this world, but we can’t allow the world to be in us. Huh? So, if Jesus said, I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but I am asking You, Father, to keep them from the evil one that’s in the world. In other words, when they’re in this world, I’m asking you to preserve their walk in the Light. I’m asking you to preserve them, that they walk in the Spirit of Christ Jesus that has been born in them, and so that they have nothing of the darkness.
So now, it’s a real challenge in terms of friendships and relationships. That if you have friends that are not Christians, they have not made Jesus Lord and Savior of their life, and you have got friends, how do you continue to be friends with him? Huh? It’s a challenge, right? Yeah. Because when you walk into their lives, and you are fully committed to Jesus. Now, I need to make this distinction because if you are not fully committed to Jesus, then there’s a level of darkness that you are walking in that says, “I have chosen my own will and my own will does not want Jesus to be part of this part of my life.” What you’re actually doing, is you’re denying the very power of life that’s in you. You’re denying that power to change who you touch. Okay.
The best example, one of the best examples, I can give you, is when I was in the military, I went into the military and I had to do two years worth of service there. When I was living among them. Can you see that I’m in the light, those that have not made Jesus Lord and Savior are in the dark. I have no option, but to live with them. Jesus says, “I’m not asking you to take them out to the world, but to preserve them from the evil one.” I have to keep making sure that I’m living in light and the light sustains me, I don’t allow their darkness to infect me.
I don’t allow their ways, their thinking, and their things that go on with them, to infect me. I must keep fueling my spirit man with Life and Light, so that whenever I’m in the darkness, my Light shines stronger than the darkness. I can’t allow the darkness, I can’t allow a dimming effect to happen in my life. Right? Because if I allow the dimming effect to happen in the light, in my life, then what happens is that, ultimately, I walk in darkness with them because we, we suddenly agree with each other. We suddenly understand each other because they’re in the dark and they don’t want me to walk in the light, because when I walk in the light, it actually offends them. Because they can’t see what I see and they can’t have what I have because if I walk in the light, and they walk in the dark, then actually the Light that is in me, is confronting the dark that is in them all the time. Right?
So, if I allow the Light to dim in my life, so that I’m closer to the darkness, than to the Light, then actually I get on well with everybody that’s in the dark. Because they are choosing to live in the dark and I’m choosing to live in the same darkness that they live in, which is absent Light. Absent real life, and absent fellowship with God. So, that’s not a decision that happens immediately. It happens over time. When I was in High school, I had to make a decision in High school, whether I was going to mingle with the right crowd, or preserve the Light in me, as a teenager. I’ve said this before, fortunately, or whatever you want to say about it. I had enough engagement with the world because of my sporting stuff that I did.
But let me tell you, when it came to break times, and to things where you go and sit and eat lunch with friends, right? Classmates, I didn’t have any. I didn’t have any, I had people that knew me. We knew each other. I had some, some other Christians that were either younger than me or older than me, that I would from time to time have some fellowship with, but for the most part, I didn’t really have any, any real people that I could say, “Yes, I made a good friend at school.” Because the majority of people that I was connecting with in sports teams, and everywhere else, they all lived in darkness. They were pursuing their own plan for their life with everything that they had.
When I went into the military, I found the same thing happening there. I had to fuel my spirit constantly with the Word of God, and with the life of God, because I was living in darkness, twenty-four seven. They all wanted me to be like them, but when I went to bed at night, and I would take my Bible before I went to bed at night, I would take my Bible and read it. I would, I did this on purpose. I don’t have to do that now, but at that time, I did it on purpose. I would kneel next to my bed, and I would pray. I would pray a long time.
I wouldn’t just do like, you see the movies, where people sit next to their bed like this (Pastor John standing with his hand in prayer position) and bless daddy and bless mommy and bless everybody else, then thank You, Lord, Amen. Then it’s over. I would sit at the edge of my bed or kneel at the edge of my bed or side of my bed and I would sit there and I would read the Bible and close my eyes and pray and would read the Bible and close my eyes and pray. I did it on purpose because I wanted everybody to understand, this is my choice. This is my life.
All of those people, while we were training, we did a whole year of training, they persecuted me endlessly. They did many little things to upset my life and in some occasions, you know, they got so offended by my walk with God, that they did stupid things to me. Baptize me with beer, try to make me drink with them, you know. I mean, just do stupid things, at me, all the time, say nasty comments, exclude me from things, because I walked in the Light.
But when we got through our year of training, and we found ourselves in war, it’s amazing how many of those same guys would come and sit in my bed and come and say, before anything would happen the next day, John, will you read the Bible to us? And will you pray for us, please? To the point that they eventually went to a Commanding officer, and they asked the Commanding officer to prevent, to please not let the denominational preacher come and do any prayer parades. They asked if I could do the prayer parades and read the Bible to them every morning because when they were persecuting me for a whole year, my Light stayed strong.
When the second year came and we were seeing lots of action and things were happening, they wanted the Light because they could see the authenticity of the Light that was in me, this was not a religious practice. This was not about ceremonies, this was not about things that are said, but not lived. This is not about trying to preach a sin message, that you must repent from and that’s the strength of our hold that we have over people that you are sinners, and the only place you can be free is if you come to the church and you give money to the church. I lived my life in the Light. Whenever they saw the Light, and they saw this Light cannot be extinguished. Doesn’t matter how much we persecute this Light, it doesn’t matter how much we come against this Light, this Light cannot be extinguished. The Light is strong in this one. Huh?
Because the strength of my light continued, it created a separation with the darkness, but that was intentional by God because when the time came, and darkness was about to consume their lives, they came back to the Light.
When I got married to my wife, I’m giving you another example. I got married to my wife, everybody that had marriages around me and friends, they all wanted to tell me what marriage is all about. They would say things like, as long as you keep the bag happy. You know, or the old lady. As long as you keep her happy, and don’t do anything really negative, you’ll be alright. Every man understands there’s some things, that you just got to just keep the old lady happy. As long as you keep doing that, as a minimum, you can live your life.
Don’t shut me down because I’m preaching good now. But, I didn’t want their standard of marriage. I wanted the standard of marriage that was in the Light, that the Bible said I could have, and so, I started to pursue what the Bible said my marriage could be like, not what everybody else said, marriage is like. Many people, and especially men, said, “Well, if you’re a man, then this is how men must be in family and be in marriage. This is the kind of emotion a man must show or not show. This is the kind of behaviour a man must have or not have.” Because in our culture, my dad did it and his dad did it and I saw all the men that they connected with, they all did it. It becomes a culturally processed behaviour pattern through generations, because my dad did it and I must do it. I have a behaviour pattern.
It’s like when families come together, the men gather together around the car and they kick the tires and they talk about the engine and all that kind of stuff, because the girls are in the kitchen and the men must talk about cars and kick the wheels. Right?
I mean, I’m giving you a small example of how culturally, our behaviour patterns can be impacted by other men, as a man that says, this is how your family must behave. This is how you must be in the family and so that has a direct impact in the way that you connect and communicate with your wife, because you carry those things with you. So, when I was connecting to other marriages and other men in marriages, they were telling me what their cultural value systems had all given them, and they had been passed down to them, and they wanted to pass it down to me. I said, No, I don’t want your cultural value systems in my marriage, I want the Word of God, I want the Light to be my portion.
So now, if the Light leads me to your behaviour pattern, then I’ll say let’s do this together, but if the Light leads me to do something else, then I’m going to do something different. So, I did something different. I’ve been married for nearly 40 years, in a couple of months and I’m still in love with the same woman. I’m still having intimacy with the same woman, the only one and only woman I’ve ever had intimacy with for 40 years and no other no other woman has ever tempted me to change my mind on that. The reason for that is because the life lives in me, the Light lives in me and shows me how to live. I’m preaching really good today.
So, when it says, when we talk about, I Will Take The Children, and this whole message has been about I Will Take The Children, there is plenty of opinion in all of your friends, and all of your family that says you cannot be so different in the way that you raise your kids as we raised our kids, because that’s the way it’s got to be done. So, if you want the darkness of the way people say you must raise your kids to be your children’s portion, then go ahead and go and just give every generational bad behaviour baggage that you have walked in, give it onto them. Let them walk with it and let them live with it all of their grown-up life’s, but you can say it stops here. You can choose life for yourself. You can choose Light for yourself. Amen.
How does this apply to business? So, I ask you this question. If I’m a Christian, and I’ve made Jesus the Lord and Saviour of my life, but actually I’m living for myself. I want to just make money, make money, make money, make money, and I don’t really care how I want to make money, but now I am a born again, Christian. Remember this thing about I choose my own will.
Alright. So, my own will, I’ve been taught by my father and my father’s father and other people I connected with, is that; “Hey, listen, as long as, you know, it’s profitable, do it. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got to corrupt somebody, bribe somebody, do something else. Just do the deal and make the profit.” Okay, “I’m a Christian, but actually, my value system is very messed up.” Come on. Are you with me?
Now, I’m a Christian, but I’m actually walking in the Light and I’m living to have Jesus in my heart and I’m wanting to do everything Jesus is telling me. Which is a system that says; “I’m not going to corrupt anybody, I’m not going to bribe anybody, I’m not going to do anything like that. I’m going to live, I’m going to pay my creditors on time, I’m going to be an honest, upright, straight businessman.” You with me?
Now, I come to another person who is an unbeliever, but this person hasn’t made Jesus Lord and Savior of their life, but they have been raised in a value system where they have the same values that are in the Bible. They’re honest, they don’t bribe anybody, they pay everybody on time, and they don’t make contracts that they can’t fulfil. Remember we used to live in a society – well, certainly the early years of my life anyway, and my father’s life. We used to live in a society that if you talked about a deal and you came to a deal, it would be like this; “Empie, you and me, we agree, we shake hands, when we shake hands and we agree on the deal, that’s it.” My word is my word, his word is his word, and we will not deviate from it. We don’t need a legal contract. We don’t need any lawyers to preside. We’re two honest men doing an honest deal and that’s the way life was conducted. Right?
Now, if you find a man like that, that you do business with, but he has not made Jesus the Lord and Savior of his life, but he’s got those value systems. I would go so far as to say that he’s value systems are in the Light. Right? But now, if you want to interpret this Scripture and say; “What can I do with anybody that’s never made Jesus Lord and Savior in their life?” Then you are in danger of doing business with a corrupted Christian.
Who would you rather do business with? A corrupted Christian or an incorruptible non-Christian? That’s a no-brainer. I’d rather do business with someone that’s faithful and that lives in a level of unconditional, “My word is my word.” Right? I judge who I’m doing business with, by my Light and if his business practice measures up to the Light, I’ll do business with the Light.
But if his business practice, even though we can talk Christian; “Ja, I went to that church years ago, and I watched, you know, I watch TV church every Sunday, when I can, when I feel like it, when I’m not playing golf, you know. I’m a Christian, and I listen to Christian music,” “Oh, ja! I know. I know Hillsong, I know Bethel,” and now people are going to talk about Heritage of Faith Worship. “Ja, I know that. Ja, I know that. I know that, you know.”
Actually, the guy is as skeef (skew, not straight) as you can get them. You know, I mean, his life is like this [Pastor John waves his hand to and fro]. Wherever the flow goes. It’s just skeef. You know, there’s nothing straightforward about the guy. Everything is a hidden motive, and it’s rounded words, and he doesn’t commit to anything, and he’s always changing the rules, and he’s always got some things going on there. Who would you rather do business with? I don’t want to do business with a guy like that. He’ll take my shirt and my underpants and leave me standing with nothing. “Oh, but we’re Christians.”
No, no, your behaviour is a dark behaviour, sir. You have chosen to live in the darkness even though you are a Christian. I’d rather have someone who chooses to live in Light, and then later, they have a chance to become a Christian because your Light speaks to his value system, and he says, “Ah, you know, you’re not one of those Christians that…” Unfortunately, Christianity has a bad reputation, because too many skeef Christians.
Nobody wants to do business with a Christian, because they think that they can do anything, because the Bible says, and they use the scripture; “All things, I can do all things, and everything is permissible for me, even though not everything is profitable.” They changed the whole scripture and say, “I’ll make it permissible and profitable.” Come on. Today, you’re getting great, great wisdom today. You’re getting a great message today. You’re allowed to say, “Amen,” today.
When it comes to relationships, if you’re a woman, who gets born again and Jesus is living in your heart and you’re living with a man who is not a Christian, but is a good man. What do you do according to this scripture? You don’t divorce him. Unless he says, “Hey, you have become a different woman because you walk in the Light and so I want nothing to do with you.” Because maybe you make a decision; oh, we used to party and drink together and we did whatever business deals you did, I was part of it. You know, like, when you have after hour dinners and things and they used to drink and dance and do all kinds of stuff. Now she’s walking in the Light, she’s making different decisions and then he says, “This is not the woman I married and so I want to divorce you.” The Bible is clear; if you’re such a woman, then divorce him, let him divorce you. Let’s put it that way; let him divorce you, and it’s vice versa.
I can tell you, there’s a man that has gone on to be with Jesus now and he was a minister in America. He was a man that really inspired me and I was fortunate enough to meet him. He was a really top businessman, made a lot of money and he met a woman that wanted his high-money-life. She wanted to be in the country club, she wanted to live in the best places, she wanted the best cars and she wanted to be a society woman.
He met Jesus and he made Jesus the Lord of his life. He asked her and he begged her to please come with him to church and she said, “No, I don’t want to.” As time went by, he began to change. He didn’t want to go and do stuff with the country club guys anymore. She said, “You’ve become a different man. You don’t want to be a society guy.” He was still making a lot of money and in the meantime, God called him to preach. Now, he kept his business going, but he went and started preaching.
She didn’t want to come with him, so she divorced him and he lived without a partner in his life for something like 30 years because he really loved that woman. She divorced him because she didn’t want what he had, but God eventually gave him a partner. You know, and some of it was just about him personally.
What am I saying to you? I’m just saying to you; when you choose to walk in the Light, there is a wisdom that comes with walking in the Light. The wisdom is that you live with people, but you don’t let the darkness that they live in, infect you. Sometimes when it comes to business, you’ve got to make a decision how you’re going to do business, where you’re going to do business, and you’re going to make a stand for what you do in the Light. Because in the moment, it might not seem to be profitable, but if you live for God, He will make it profitable for you, He will make it worth your while. In the end, you will be the one who makes the money, and you will find things happen to you; that favor comes to you, blessing comes to you, business deals come to you, that don’t come to other people and suddenly things will begin to change.
This doesn’t happen overnight and unfortunately, some people think it happens overnight. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time for the Light to get strong in you. It takes time for you to know this situation, that situation, all the different things that we face in life; this is how I let my Light shine, this is how I speak my words, this is how I handle my family. You don’t go to your family next week and say the pastor said I must have nothing to do with your culture. You go to your family, you love them and you don’t even tell them that, that this culture is a generational thing that you don’t want.
You just slowly let the Word of God change you and they’ll begin to see the Light has changed you. As the Light changes you, you might have some times where they don’t want to have anything to do with you. But I promise you, when things go wrong in their life, they will come running right back to you and that will be the time when you can restore a relationship.
I’m out of time, I could preach a lot longer this morning. I know you want me to preach all day today, because this is really relevant. So, this is why we say; God will have the children. This is a season where God is saying, “I Will Take The Children. I don’t want them to be part of the world system, I don’t want them to be raised the way the darkness has raised so many of our children, because I need a generation of Light-walkers. I need a generation of Light-bringers. I need a generation of Light-truth-speakers that are going to be able to stand in the darkness and say; we know what the Light is and the darkness has got no place in us.”
Hallelujah. Won’t you stand to your feet, please? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Did you get something from this message today? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Put your hand on your chest like this and say; I’m a son of God. I walk in the Light. I don’t walk in darkness. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
Father, I pray that all Your children will have the wisdom and the understanding of how to walk in the Light day by day, moment by moment, business deal, families, relationships, they will have wisdom and understanding. You will bless them and keep them and protect them, in Jesus’ name. As they go on holiday or do various things, I pray that Your Word and the blood of Jesus surrounds them and protects them and brings them back to us safely and I ask You to give Your angels charge over them, Father, and bless them in all of their doing and all of they’re going, in Jesus’ name. And you all say; Amen. Thank you for coming to church.
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